MEETING MINUTES -- 24 January 2006 -- DITA TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

Title: MEETING MINUTES -- 24 January 2006 -- DITA TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

MEETING MINUTES -- 24 January 2006 -- DITA TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

(Minutes taken by Seraphim Larsen <>)

Date:  Tuesday, 24 January 2006

Time:  08:00am - 09:00am PT

DITA Technical Committee website:  

    - Public:       http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=dita

    - Members only: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/

    - Wiki:         http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/

- Roll call

    - We do have quorum

- Review/approve minutes from previous meeting:

    - (Jan 3) http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/16133/minutes.1.03.06.txt 

        - Don moved to approve the minutes, Seraphim seconded, no

          objections, approved by acclamation.

    - (Jan 10) http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/16269/TC-Meeting-Minutes-2006-1-10.txt

        - Don moved to approve the minutes, Robert Anderson

          seconded, no objections, approved by acclamation.

    - Jan 17 was not a regular TC business meeting -- no minutes.

    - Review recent translation discussion--schedule actions

        - Create a liason between the two groups on translation

          issues?

            - **** ACTION for Don to initiate liason activity with

              the ITS workgroup at WC3

            - Anyone else interested in participating in that

              activity?

                - Kumar Gershon volunteered

                - Don thinks JoAnn Hackos is also interested, but he

                  won't volunteer her.  :)

            - **** ACTION for Don to add discussion of xml:tm and

              translation scorecard to the list

- Review OASIS DITA Wiki:

    - http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/FrontPage

        - Don gave a walk-through

        - Seraphim will help Don administer the site (keep things

          orderly)

        - Anyone who is a *member* of the TC may create/edit pages;

          observers and non-members have read-only access.

        - Our previous work on items accepted for DITA 1.1 is here:

            - http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/AcceptedAndCandidate

- Resume review of "left off the list" and unnumbered proposals for 1.1 scope:

    - http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/200512/msg00010.html

    - http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/OffTheList#preview

        - (start at #33)

        - #33 Move <refsyn> to a domain (depends on #32, which was accepted) 

            - Some discussion of an issue raised by Michael

              Priestley -- his issue was resolved.

            - This one is ready to be included in the 1.1 cutoff

        - #44 Keep indextermref (or redefine its function)

            - Don -- This one had been indicated for deprecation --

              there may be possible alternative ways of doing this,

              therefore the semantic for having a dedicated element

              didn't necessarily seem useful enough to keep it.

              Thus, the question is, shall we drop indextermref?

            - Michael Priestley -- What exactly is the proposal?  To

              make it undeprecated?

            - (Some discussion, but the echo on the conference call

              made it impossible to follow.)

            - Don -- There doesn't seem any strong sentiment towards

              keeping indextermref.  Any objections?

            - No objections, so for 1.1, we keep this as status quo,

              in other words, not on the 1.1 agenda.

              

        - #49 Better separation of XSL-FO names from XSLT logic

          (looks like Toolkit req) 

            - Don -- His take is that this is a toolkit requirement,

              a "best practice", but not something under the domain

              of the spec.  Thus, his recommendation for this is

              *not* to include it in the spec (not for 1.1, or later

              either).  Let's remove this, since it's not something

              the TC needs to address.

            - Don -- We've determined that this does not apply to

              the TC, but to the Toolkit.  ***** ACTION for Don, to

              transfer this to the Developer's list for the toolkit.

                

    - Unnumbered items come next (same list of items, just some of

      them weren't numbered...)

        - Spec and process issues (from Yas's notes, other

          comments): Update DITA 1.0 DTD/Schema specification (bug

          fixes and comment edits)

            - http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/200507/msg00058.html

              among others

            - Robert Anderson -- The only additional bug fix is

              (something about syntax diagrams).  Does that need to

              be fixed here?

            - Don -- Let's close this item, and make that syntax

              diagram a new bug item (Closed)

        

        - Paul -- As an aside -- how do things get added to this

          list of issues (such as his graphics issue, which he

          posted to the TC list)?

            - Don -- Go to the Wiki

              (http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/OffTheList#preview),

              scroll down to the bottom, click on the "Edit" button

              (on the left).  Add your item to the bottom of the

              current list.  You could also post your document to

              the Documents repository on the OASIS site.  Or maybe

              point to the posting on the list.  ***** ACTION for

              Don and Seraphim to work out the adminstrative

              details.  In the meantime, go ahead and just edit the

              Wiki page.

            - Kumar -- Can any member add something here?

            - Don -- Yes, but we're only taking new, minor items

              now, such as bug fixes -- no more major items that

              would require major rework.

            - Don -- Also, please just add things to the end of the

              existing list, so it's easier to work through them.

        - OASIS artifact naming guidelines (to follow where applicable) 

            - http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/200507/maillist.html

            - Robin Cover -- those guidelines are not finished yet,

              so let's not commit to anything yet (we don't know

              what we'd be committing to).

            - Don -- OK, let's just point the spec editors to that,

              as a reference, but it's not something we will commit

              to follow right now.

        - Documenting DITA design principles (not approved yet) 

            - http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/200510/msg00005.html 

            - Don -- Good suggestion -- Should this be part of the

              spec itself, or an ancillary document?

            - Michael Priestly -- It makes sense to include it as

              part of the spec.  

            - Don -- Makes sense, just didn't want to increase the

              editors' workload.

                    - Maybe the editors can develop this through the

                      DITA Wiki, so many people can contribute to

                      it.

            - Michael -- Would not be comfortable moving the

              proposed list directly into the spec, since it

              contradicts what IBM actually does.  Thus his

              recommendation is to include a section on design

              principles, but it won't be as straightforward as just

              adopting the existing doc.  There are different

              perspectives on what the best design principles really

              are.  

            - Don -- Let's keep this in 1.1, but the specific

              content is to be worked out by the editors. 

            - Michael -- Yes, but it won't be trivial, and will need

              work.  

            - Don -- Is it on the 1.1 list or not?

            - Michael -- Yes, it should stay on the 1.1 list.

        - Details in the DITA spec--Priestley 

            - ("There are some cases... where the spec needs to be

              updated")

            - http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/200510/msg00059.html

            - behavior of conref with attributes on the referencing

              element 

            - why a content fragment has to be addressed

              within a topic 

                - Don -- Are there any cases where the spec needs to

                  be updated?

                - Michael -- No, it's normal that it's not updated.  

                - Don -- So, does this need to go into 1.1?

                - Michael -- Yes.

                - Decision -- Recommendation is to leave it on the

                  1.1 list.

        - Extensibility of DITA through new attributes 

            - http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/200508/msg00065.html  

            - http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/200508/msg00069.html

              and following 

            - Don -- Is there a reason why this is not one of the

              existing requirements that we've already discussed?

              Isn't this already covered in the general

              extensibility of attributes that is covered by another

              proposal in progress?

            - Michael -- There was some confusion, because Michael

              was calling it metadata attributes, and did not refer

              to all attributes in general.  This new proposal is in

              regard to all attributes in general.

                - It really comes down to design principles.

                  Inheritance doesn't work with attributes, and to

                  make it work, we need to do a lot of rework.

                  That's possible for profiling attributes, but it's

                  outside of present scope to do it for *all*

                  attributes.  General extensibility (being able to

                  specialize *anything*) is going to be really hard

                  to address.

                - We might be able to handle Paul Prescod's concerns

                  by defining two base class attributes, one for

                  profiling and one for anything, and only allowing

                  specialization off of those two.

                - Without Paul Prescod, we can't really resolve

                  today.  So let's continue here next time.

- Announcements/Opens

    - None

<end>

___________________________________________________________ 

Seraphim Larsen                       CIG Operations / TPPE 

Senior Technical Writer                   Intel Corporation 

(480) 552-6504                                 Chandler, AZ 

The content of this message is my personal opinion only. 

Although I am an employee of Intel, the statements I make 

here in no way represent Intel's position on the issue, nor 

am I authorized to speak on behalf of Intel on this matter. 

___________________________________________________________